Microsoft Network, or MSN as its more commonly known is an Internet service provider(ISP) providing many different web services, including: Free Email(Hotmail) and Chat System(MSN messenger). In 2007 MicroSoft Network went under a rebranding exercise to Windows Live, However when this rebranding failed, the old MSN was recreated using the Live branding.

MSN's popularity comes from the many differing gadgets on the home page, as well as the fact it was the default home page for Internet Explorer, with many users unable to change, or not having the resource to change. This factor alone makes this search engine relatively popular within the consumer market.

MSN from a technical basis, is currently lagging behind the big two (Yahoo and Google) by around 1-2 years, however last year there was buyout talked from Microsoft to purchase Yahoo!, giving them quite a large share of the web surfer market, and a huge leap on both an architecture and the essential algorithm would have been made, However this takeover did not happen, effectively wasting MSN's essential development time where the eye would have been taken off the ball.

Recently MSN have taken a leaf out of there biggest Rivals books, Launching MSN Webmaster Central, which is a much simplified version of Google webmaster tools, however it is a better product to the Yahoo Equivalent - and proves Microsoft want to be a big player in this market